“I guess that’s why I’m here,” she said quietly. “To face myself.”
The room collectively let out a breath.
I opened my mouth to ask a follow-up—but Demi beat me to it.
“I know the world will want to know who my father is. And where I’ve been.” She straightened, voice steady. “My father is Niko Themelis. World-renowned artist.”
I’d wondered what story Eros would let Demi tell about him. Using that alias made the most sense. His alter ego was almost as reclusive as she had been.
Jazzy mouthed,No freaking way,salivating at the news.
“We’ve lived all over the world,” Demi said, her voice smooth, practiced. “But I spent a lot of time in Greece, where the best specialists helped me recover from my injuries. It’s also where I attended an exclusive private university.”
She was steering now. Of course she was. Once upon a time, she had been a pro at this.
But it was time for me to take back the wheel.
“If you say you don’t know who you are,” I said, voice steady, “how do you expect the men you’ll date on this show to know who you are? Is that fair to them?”
The question hung in the air like a challenge.
It surprised me that Zeus had let me ask it. I’d braced for something ridiculous to fall out of my mouth without my permission.
But this time, the gods stayed silent.
Demi flashed me an annoyed look that said,Touché.
I expected her not to answer or, at the very least, to sidestep the question with her usual snark. But once again I found myself dumbfounded by her.
“Honestly, I doubt any of them will truly get to know me,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s unfair, though. How many people do we ever truly know? I think most of us reserve our real selves for the ones who matter. The people we trust to love all of us—even the bad parts.”
My jaw nearly dropped. Note to self: Never underestimate Demi.
“So,” I said, trying to sound neutral, “how does someone go about getting to know the real you?”
It came out too soft.
Too personal.
Like I was asking for myself.
What in the Titans was wrong with me?
“Carefully,” she said, with a laugh that curled around the room. “Very carefully.”
She knew exactly what she was doing.
And the viewers were going to eat it up.
I hated how much I was eating it up. Hated it even more that I wanted to proceed with caution and get to know her better. Had Zeus and Eros done something to me?
Or had Demi?
Hard to tell.
“Two final questions,” I said, though I had a dozen more inside itching to be unleashed.
She had me fascinated. I wanted to know when and why she’d locked her heart. But I couldn’t ask that directly. So I circled the question like a hunter in fog.
